Automatic car-register



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

W. BISPRAGUE 8t 0. W. KELLOGG.

AUTOMATIC OAR REGISTER.

No. 439,906. Patented Nov. 4, 1890.

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" UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE AND CHARLES W. KELLOGG, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOTS AUTOMATIC CAR-REGISTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 439,906, dated November 4, 1890.

Application filed 31111620, 1890.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE and CHARLES W. KELLOGG, both citizens of the United States of America, and both re-. siding at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in an Automatic Oar-Register, of which the followingis a specification.

It is the general practice among railroads to employ men at all terminal points, junctions, and sometimes other important stations alonglthe line, whose exclusive work it is to take down the numbers and names of all cars often passing over a dozen different roads before reaching their destination, would involve the railway service in inextricable c011- fusion, entailing enormous expense in keeping track of rolling-stock, were not some such plan as this adopted to note the arrival of each car at the principal points in its journey, and even as it is, cars are frequently lost at intermediate points and must be made the subject of special inquiry before they can be located and recovered.

Our invention relates to a device for automatically doing the work both of the man who takes down the number of the car and the name of the road to which it belongs and of the person who transmits the record to the central office, and also to render the making of the record so easy and inexpensive, that the same may be done not only at important places but also at all intermediate stations along the line, thus making a complete history of the progress of each car from point to point. For this purpose we have devised an apparatus, the general features of which are illustrated in Figure 1 of the drawings fur nished herewith, and the specific details of which are shown in Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

For the transmission of the record from the desired point on the track to the central station we make use of an electric circuit, (indicated by the wires A in Fig. 1,) which showa complete circuit. In practice, however, as is Serial No. 356,168- (No model.)

the case with most telegraph-wires, one-half of the circuit would be made through the earth. In this circuit we interpose at the central station any suitable recording-receiver adapted to receive and record signals V,

made by the breaking and closing of the circuit-such, for instance, as the ordinary receiver formerly used in the Morse telegraph. This is lettered B in the drawings, and carries a strip of paper 0, which receives the marks in the manner common in such instruments. If it is desired that the progress of the cars be timed as well as recorded, this strip may be divided by suitable marks and advanced by clock-work, speeded to carry these marks past the recording-point at a rate which will make said marks represent any desired intervals of time. This will make a permanent record, and, if desired, may be made to dispense with the usual record -books kept for this purpose.

The means by which we accomplish the automatic record of the progress of the cars consist, essentially, in the combination, with the electric circuit before mentioned and a receiving and recording instrument, of a suitable transmitting device attached to the car, arranged where it will come in contact, as the car passes an y desired point on the track, with two conductors interposed in the electric circuit, leaving a slight break therein between them adapted to make an electricalconnection between the two conductors, and thereby send impulses through the circuit corresponding to signals selected to represent the number or other designation of the car and of the road to which it belongs, and of a second transmitting device interposed in the circuit, located at a slight distance from the point on the track above mentioned and adapted by the passage of a circuit-closer attached to the car to send a similar succession of impulses through the circuit, which shall designate the name or number of the point or station on the track at which the device is located.

A large number of devices have been here tofore used in other connections which would answer the general purpose of our invention fairly well. minor and supplementary improvements in the specific devices which we prefer to use, and shall proceed to describe said devices IOC minutely, not intending, however, to limit the broad principle of our invention thereto, except as clearly pointed out and defined in the claims appended hereto. These devices are illustrated in the second sheet of the drawings, Fig. 2 thereof being a vertical cross-section in line 2 2 of Fig. 1 of the transmitting device above referred to as attached to the car in connection with the conductors located on the track; Fig. 3, a brokenunder View of said transmitting device; Fig. 4, a vertical cross-section in line 4 4 of Fig. 1 of the transmitting device spoken of as located on the track in connection with the lower portion of the circuit-closer attached to the car, and Figs. 5 and 6 broken plan and side views, respectively, of said last-mentioned transmitting device.

Describing first the transmitter, which is attached' to the car to report its number and name, said device, as shown, consists of abar O of suitable conducting material attached to a portion of the car accessible from the track and riding directly upon the axles, bearing upon its under face transverse grooves filled with some good non-conductor D, thus forming upon said under face a succession of alternate conducting portions 0 and non-conducting portions D. This bar may be connected to the car in any suitable manner, so as to be insulated therefrom, and should preferably be vertically adjustable. We prefer to attach it at the outside of the truckframe beneath the tie-bar E, by means of bolts e' 6, having heads coated with insulating material, and to provide for the vertical adjustment of the bar by means of nuts 6 upon the bolts e. Upon the track of the desired point a roller F is mounted upon aspring G and insulated therefrom by means of a non-conducting plate H. This roller consists of conducting end portions f insulated from each other by the portion f, which contains a metal core f to strengthen the roller. The end portions f are in the form of cups, and present continuous conducting surfaces around the periphery of the roller, separated from each other by the insulating material above referred to. The roller is mounted in journals I, separated from each other, in which it turns freely, and metal springs J make electrical connections, respectively, with the end portions f of the roller, and are themselves connected with the circuit-wires A by the binding-posts a. The bar 0 is adjusted so that in passing it will strike and depress the roller F sufficiently to insure a perfect contact with the surface thereof. As it passes over said roller, the connecting portions 0 come successively into contact with said surface, and connecting the end portions f thereof, complete the circuit for such times and at such intervals as the extent of their surface and that of the intermediate non-conducting portions D shall determine. It will readily be seen that this will send impulses common telegraphic key, and to the reception and the recording of which the receiver B is adapted. If, now, the conducting portionsc be arranged to correspond to some signal which shall designate the car, a record of the passage of the latter over the roller F will be made upon the paper strip at the central station. Thus, looking at Fig. 1,the conducting portions of the bar which extend to the under surface thereof will be seen to present faces which, read according to the Morse alphabet, represent the characters E. I. 50, standing for the words Eastern Illinois, No. 50, and the passage of this bar over the roller would record at the central station the appearance of said car at the point on the track where the roller F is situated. To complete the record, it is necessary to add some designation of this point on the track, such as the name or number of the station. This is done by the second transmitting device, which consists of a bar 0, mounted upon the track in the neighborhood of the roller F, but far enough therefrom to avoid confusion of signals, said bar being composed of a nonconducting body D, insulating the conducting side strips 0 connected, respectively, with the circuitwires and extending to the upper surface of the bar only at portions 0' thereof of predetermined extent, and separated by the nonconducting material of which the body of the bar is composed. Upon the car, where it will slide over the surface of the bar 0 in passing, an insulated spring-plate K is supported, wide enough to connect the side plates 0 of the bar 0 as it brushes over them. The conducting-surfaces a are formed according to a prearranged code of signals, and as the plate K passes over the surface of the bar it will connect the side plates 0 at the points where they reach said surface, and thereby transmit the name of the station to the central office. This will be recorded upon the strip O adjacent to the record of the car before described, and if said strip be timed, as hereinbefore described, will make acomplete and permanent record of the number of the car, the name of the road to which it. belongs, the name of the station, and the time at which it passed said station. With reference to the bar 0, the upwardly-projecting portions 0 need only be made upon one of the said plates 0 if preferred, and the other extent to the upper surface throughout its entire length, as in such case the operation will be precisely the same as that of the formshown in the drawings.

We claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. In an automatic register, the combination of an electric circuit, a receiver, two conductors arranged at a given point in the circuit but separated to leave a break therein, a circuit-closing device carried by amoving obj ect havingasurface made up of alternate conducting and non-conducting portions adapted to be brought in contact with said conductors and thereby alternately make and break the circuit during predetermined intervals, two conductors also arranged in the circuit near said point and insulated from each other, one of which also has a surface made up of alternate conducting and non-conducting portlons, and a circuit-closer carried by the said moving object adapted to connect said last two conductors, producing by its passage over the same a second series of makes and breaks in the circuit, also, during predetermined intervals, substantially as described.

2. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of the roller F, made up of the conducting end portions f f, forming the WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE. CHARLES W. KELLOGG. Witnesses:

NEWTON WYETH, F. C. SPRAGUE. 

